MILESTONE ON MADISON

Johnny Gaudreau is making it look easy.
The impossible, casual.
The unattainable... well, you get the picture.
Fact is, with the way Johnny Hockey is trending these days, you never know what you're going to be treated to.

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On Monday, his latest milestone - career point No. 600 - was no small deed. It was anything but a fortuitous tip off the shinpad, a bizarre bank off the boards, or a moment mired by the soul-sapping review process.
Nope.
It came in his usual, sharp-shooting fashion that immediately turned Twitter aflame.
Gaudreau not only hit this impressive mile-marker, but with an empty-net tuck later in the game, improved to 38 goals on the year and recorded his league-leading 85th even-strength point of the season, 11 up on second-place Auston Matthews.
It's the most even-strength points any player has had in the past 26 years, passing Connor McDavid's 84 from the 2017-18 season. (The last player to have more was Jaromir Jagr, who had 95 in the 1995-96 season.)
With 107 points on the year, Gaudreau is only three points behind McDavid for the league lead in overall scoring.
Go off, Johnny.
Gaudreau (2), Dillon Dube, Blake Coleman and Oliver Kylington supplied the offence, while Jacob Markstrom - making his career-high 61st start of the season - made 22 saves in a 5-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks.
Matthew Tkachuk had a pair of helpers and is now only two points off the century mark.
With the victory, the Flames improve to 47-20-9 for 103 points - nine up on the Oilers for first place in the Pacific with a half-dozen left in the regular season.
The Flames - who allowed the game's opening strike a half-minute into Saturday's game - drew first blood with a tip only 22 seconds into the contest. Calle Jarnkrok and Blake Coleman combined to win the offensive-zone faceoff, before sending the puck back to the point for a Noah Hanifin shot. Dube timed it perfectly, screening Kevin Lankinen with an impeccable fly-by after gaining inside position on Caleb Jones. And the redirect?
Sublime.
It dribbled across the line to give No. 29 his fourth goal in three games, and 14th of the year - extending his career high.
It was the league-leading 49th time this year the Flames have scored the first goal.
The Flames took a 2-0 lead with one of the prettiest goals you'll ever see, courtesy of Johnny Hockey.
Gaudreau went for a skate, circling the zone with absolute ease, before turning the corner one last time off the right circle and sniping a shot top shelf, blocker side, at 6:23. Tkachuk - who planted the screen in front - and former Blackhawk Nikita Zadorov picked up the helpers.
For Gaudreau, it was career point No. 600.

The Blackhawks entered the night with only one win in their last 10, but they certainly didn't go quietly. Tyler Johnson got the homeside on the board less than a minute later, sending a wrister over the glove of Markstrom from the hashmarks.
The Flames, though, restored their two-goal advantage late in the period when Coleman got a piece of a Kylington point shot, beating Lankinen and making the Hawks pay for a casual clearing attempt.
Coleman now has goals in back-to-back games.

Gaudreau had a chance to make this one a laugher only moments later when he took off on a clear-cut breakaway, but Lankinen snuffed the dangler's backhand five-hole bid.
The Flames were putting on a clinic for much of the second period, out-shooting the Hawks 12-4 by the 13-minute mark of the frame, but an innocent-looking shot by Chicago rookie Alec Regula completely changed the narrative.
His long-range wrister somehow found the net, and suddenly, it was a one-goal game again.
Markstrom came up large a few minutes later, robbing would-be 40-goal scorer Alex DeBrincat of a sure goal after Patrick Kane made a sensational cross-ice pass for the one-timer.
The Hawks pushed back in the third and outshot the Flames 9-4 in the stanza, but Markstrom shut the door before Gaudreau found the empty net from 125 feet with a minute-and-a-half to play.

Kylington hit the yawning cage for his ninth of the season from even longer - the full 200 - with an assist to Markstrom only 23 seconds later to round out the scoring.

THEY SAID IT:

JOHNNY GAUDREAU ON MILESTONE NIGHT:
"Playing with some good players, obviously. You don't do that by yourself. Not only our line, but our D has done a great job jumping in the rush all year, making plays. It's a lot of help from those guys in the locker-room."
ON TOP-LINE CHEMISTRY:
"As an example: Tonight, I just took off and had a little breakaway there, but I saw Lindy cheating to get the puck on the rim. He sent it up to Chucky and we're kind of reading off each other really well. As soon as I see Lindy get the puck, I take off. And Chucky's got eyes in the back of his head, too, and he sees me taking off. He catches it on his backend, sends up to me and... I miss (laughs). Other than that, it's a good combo."
ON GETTING THE WIN:
"We had a good first period. Obviously, a quick couple goals there. I think we could have had a few more, but their goalie played pretty well there in the first and helped them stick around a little bit. In the second, we kind of let our foot off the gas and in the third, they pushed back us back a little bit. But we stuck with it and got the win."
DARRYL SUTTER ON HOW IT PLAYED OUT:
"It was a hard game to play. You clinch a playoff spot two nights ago, travel all day yesterday. It was a hard game to play. It's a game where the kids on the other side are going to try and come out and show their worth, and they did."
ON THE DUBE-JARNKROK-COLEMAN LINE:
"Give us some energy. (They're) persistent players. I think it's good for Dillon to play with Blake right now. I think he's got lots of cleaning up to do in his game."

BY THE NUMBERS:

Shots: CGY 35 - CHI 24
Powerplay: CGY 0-for-3 - CHI 0-for-2
Hits: CGY 29 - CHI 29
Faceoffs: CGY 47% - CHI 53%
\Scoring chances: CGY 16 - CHI 18
\High-danger scoring chances: CGY 6 - CHI 4
*Courtesy of Natural Stat Trick (5-on-5)

ONE-TIMERS:

The Flames are now 12-5-2 against Central Division opponents and 27-13-4 vs. the Western Conference. … With his two goals tonight, Johnny Gaudreau became only the fifth player in franchise history to reach 600 career points (Jarome Iginla, Theo Fleury, Al MacInnis and Joe Nieuwendyk are the others). He is 15 points behind Joe Nieuwendyk for fourth place, all time, as a Flame. His 107 on the year have pulled him into a tie with Guy Chouinard for the fourth-most points in a single season in franchise history… Calgary Stampeders linebacker Jameer Thurman - a Chicago native - was on hand at the United Center, cheering on his CSEC cousins:

THE LINEUP:

FORWARDS:
Johnny Gaudreau - Elias Lindholm - Matthew Tkachuk
Andrew Mangiapane - Mikael Backlund - Tyler Toffoli
Dillon Dube - Calle Jarnkrok - Blake Coleman
Milan Lucic - Adam Ruzicka - Trevor Lewis
DEFENCE:

Oliver Kylington - Chris Tanev
Noah Hanifin - Rasmus Andersson
Nikita Zadorov - Erik Gudbranson
GOALTENDER
Jacob Markstrom - Starter
Dan Vladar

UP NEXT:

The Flames are back in action tomorrow night when they take on the Predators in the Music City. Could it be a First-Round preview? Puck drop is at 6 p.m. MT and you can catch it live on Sportsnet West/Sportsnet 960 THE FAN. From there, the Flames return home for the final two home games of the regular season, Thursday against the Dallas Stars, and Saturday (Fan Appreciation Night) against the Vancouver Canucks.
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